Homecomings
by dr100
Summary: Daleks, Danger, a Doctor in distress, the inner workings of a shape shifter, and a perilous nature of events.  In this, the Doctor is ready to die, but may a hopeful companion who is not all he appears, change his attitude towards death?
1. Prologue: Fate

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Prologue: Fate

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>Darren was 18, unemployed, but keen to begin somewhere, anywhere, in order to survive. And it was survival of the fittest. The human race was so very busy, and to keep itself busy, in order to keep going, because if all of humanity stopped, nothing would continue and all would end. And Darren didn't believe in all that 2012 cobblers.<p>

He just finished his studies, and was job hunting in his local area, when something caught his eye. A small business had set up where the old corner shop used to be. 'Time and Space' had taken over from the old newsagents.

Darren was curious. He wandered across the road, and read the sign post on the window. It read _'open'_, - so he entered. There was a scrawny, skinny fellow standing behind the till at the far end of the shop, and as Darren approached him, he ducked under the desk. There was a bell on the desk, and Darren tapped it twice to get the man's attention. The man dived up from under the desk.

"Excuse me, sorry, I saw you enter, and ducked under the desk, thought we'd do the whole shop keeper being the bumbling busy fellow a shop keeper is, finds he has a customer but acts all mysterious, isn't that how it goes?"

Darren couldn't help but chuckle in the shop keeper's face. There was something so odd about him.

"Sorry," said Darren, as he noticed the shop keeper return back under the desk. "I wanted to ask if there were any jobs going? I've just left college, so was after work you see?"

There was a pause. Then the shop keeper jumped back up again, and leant across his desk. He wore a velvet bow tie, had his hair combed over, almost over his eyes, and wore a tweet jacket. He also had a coat he wasn't wearing draped across the counter, of dark green shades. He wore boots, but Darren had to lean across the counter to get a good look at them, and staring across the counter at Darren, the Doctor recognised a similar taste for clothing. Braces, a mop of unruly hair, and chequered trousers.

"Yes, you're hired!" announced the shop keeper.

"Really?"

"Well, yes, you're the first customer, and the first customer wins the slot as employee, if we had a slot for an employee to fill, but you've filled it, now your works days are Mondays to Fridays."

"What about Saturdays and Sundays?"

"Oh, Sundays are boring, and Saturdays… well, I have my adventures in time and space to keep up with y'know!"

"Quite," replied Darren. On his way out, he had forgotten something.

"What's your name, sorry, I can't keep calling you, well, Mr…?"

"Doctor," he answered.

"Doctor… who?" asked Darren.

"Just the Doctor."

Suddenly, the shop wheezed and shuddered, and Darren found himself running, when just as he reached the exit, he found himself spinning.

"You're going to be fine, young Darren. It's just a freak effect, now run along."

Darren hadn't been running. He had imagined he had been running, whereas in fact had had been still, with his mind left to wander.

The Doctor left the counter, and tidied up the mess surrounding Darren. They he snapped his fingers, and Darren's eyes flickered into life.

"Sorry, what?" he asked, hurriedly. "What's going on?"

"Absolutely nothing," answered the Doctor.

Darren stared directly at him. The Doctor's facial expressions were both convincing, and yet so mysterious, but there was something wrong.

"I best be going," said Darren. "I'll be late for tea…"

He turned to leave, and hurried out through the exit into the street outside. He turned to look up at the sign above him. It read, - 'Time and Space'. "For a moment," he said aloud, and to himself. "I was sure I travelled in time?"

* * *

><p><em>The adventure continues in the first chapter of this new adventure, coming soon!<em>


	2. Chapter 1: Time Travel

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 1: Time Travel

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>Darren Braswick returned home the evening he secured a work placement with the chap who owned 'Time and Space'. He had, however, returned home with a headache. Had he too travelled through space and time? The way in which his pain throbbed told him so, but he refused to believe it.<p>

His mum, Shannon, had already served up the evening tea, and had set out the tablemats. It was just Darren and Shannon. It was always Darren and Shannon.

Until the doorbell rang. Darren answered the call, and returned to the front room with an elder.

"Mum… this is the Doctor."

"Doctor, eh?" she pondered.

"Hello there," he bellowed, staring down at the woman seated at the far end of the table. He tugged on his own braces, and stepped forward, willing to shake her hand, but she hadn't a hand to shake.

"We're just having our evening meal…" said Darren.

"Really? Well, what are you having? _No, no, that's rude,_ I'll call another time, _then…"_

He turned to leave when Darren turned back to his mum and said, - "Mind putting mine in the oven mum? Me and the Doctor have business to discuss."

"Business?"

The Doctor pondered the thought.

"Yes," whispered Darren, as he led the Doctor from the dining room and out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. "We've a matter of time and space to discuss!"

A short walk from home, and into town saw the Doctor and Darren arrive outside the store.

"So, what's going on?" asked Darren, suspiciously.

"Ah," responded the Doctor, puzzled by the response. "So, you know, then?"

Darren wasn't sure he knew quite what the Doctor meant by 'you know', but he went along with him that he did, and if he didn't cooperate, he'd be quite willing to go to the police.

"Okay, you wandered into a temporal anomaly, something that shouldn't exist in this time, but now does."

"How?"

"Time and space is all wibbly wobbly. The time lines converge on you, Darren."

"Why?" asked Darren.

"Look at what you're wearing," said the Doctor.

"So what?" Darren barked.

"Your attire is identical to my own. Doesn't that tell you something?"

For a moment, Darren considered what was most obvious.

"You're me?" he said, before the Doctor waggled his finger and informed him that, - _"In actual fact, Darren, you're me!"_

* * *

><p>To be continued…<p> 


	3. Chapter 2: Manipulation

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 2: Manipulation

By Nathan Mullins

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><p>"Sorry?" said Darren, troubled. He hasn't quite grasped the situation. "Are you an impersonator, impersonating me?"<p>

The Doctor began jumping up and down, on the spot, madly. Infuriatingly.

"What? _No, sorry,_ you've got it wrong, _again!"_ he said, through grit teeth, while again trying to get his point across. "I'm asking the questions, and they're personal. To me, and not to you," he added.

He stopped hopping up and down, and he had Darren's full attention.

"Where are we Darren? And when?"

Darren stared at the Doctor long and hard. He soon answered, - "Earth, 21st century, when everything changes," he said, sighing almost with terrible mixed views on the matter. "Everything has changed, hasn't it?"

"Not so, Darren, not so!" replied the Doctor. He turned from Darren, to the shop, and said quietly, - "Follow me…"

Darren soon did.

Inside 'Time and Space', the Doctor shut the door after Darren, and leant on it for a moment. He saw Darren turn back to him, in awe of his surroundings, as they suddenly changed.

"What's going on?" shouted Darren, as toys in the corner vanished, windows disappeared, a staircase appeared, and a strange contraption at the heart of "the… the…" - Darren stuttered.

"TARDIS…" added the Doctor. "Welcome to my home, no longer a home, as such. You see, Darren, the Earth is the closest to home. The TARDIS is my travelling companion. I call her 'Sexy', as she likes to be known."

"You're completely insane!" stated Darren. He tried pushing past the Doctor, but he refused to leave his post.

"Thing is Darren, there's something unusual going on. You're me, look in the mirror!"

Darren ran to a mirror nearby. He stared in at himself in horror. His reflection was unrecognisable.

"My…"

"Word," the Doctor added. "You're me, down to the looks and everything," said the Doctor. "What's going on?"

"You tell me!" demanded Darren.

"Something's manipulating the time lines," explained the Doctor.

"What does that mean?" pondered Darren, in awe still.

"Think about it, Darren. The world shifts, and one morning there stands a news agents that never was. EVER! So why now, and why's a teenager wearing my face, my body?"

"Your trousers, Ooh!" bellowed Darren, in the voice of the Doctor.

"What?" muttered the Doctor.

"Darren is no more," hissed Darren, who was no more, but was, in essence a figure who once was Darren.

"What are you talking about?" questioned the Doctor.

_"He is_ **dead.** _In_ **mind,** _and_ **soul,** _and in_ **appearance…"** responded what was Darren, now in the form of the Doctor.

"And he's gone, forever?" wondered the Doctor.

_"Yes,"_ was the response. Not the response the Doctor wanted to hear.

"Darren was eighteen years old. His mum Shannon made him tea, and it's gone to waste, and then there's you, and what are you? You're me, yes, but how? What for? WHY?"

"Something's manipulating the time lines. I am manipulating the time lines. And you were in hiding, until you stumbled upon me…"

"And you're what I was hiding from, the very same, and now the hunt is back on?"

The Doctor was, remarkably calm, but not for long.

"Yes. As you say… the hunt is on."

* * *

><p>The adventure continues…<p> 


	4. Chapter 3: Succeeding in survival

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 3: Succeeding in survival

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>Amy was sobbing quietly, while Rory lie unconscious.<p>

Suddenly, Rory's lips curled into a smile.

"Not dead again, am I?"

Amy smiled back.

"I thought you had, well… you know," she side, tipping her head sideways.

"What happened?" he asked her, while finding some feeling returning to his body.

"Well, it was the Doctor, remember?"

"No," answered Rory, angrily. "What was the Doctor?"

"He zapped some kind of bubbled thing about us, and we ended up here. Not quite sure where here is mind, but we're here," she grimaced.

"And where is here?" repeated Rory.

Amy rolled her eyes.

"He said something about there being 'little time'," recalled Amy, ploughing a hand through her orangey-red locks.

"And this was him trying to warn us?" asked Rory, finding his feet.

"We can still find him! He can't be far!"

"Yeah… and like how, eh? You got his screwdriver by any chance?"

Amy shook her head.

"We're screwed," she said, in a wee chuckle.

Meanwhile, on Earth, the Doctor was conversing with Darren, who had indeed changed into a replica of himself. The Doctor wondered how on earth.

"When we ran, our hearts felt it all, the fear, the exhilaration…"

"W?" responded what was once Darren, but now something of a facsimile of himself.

"Yes," announced the Doctor. "We're alike, in every way. You share what I feel, what I have, and my desires…"

"That's reasonable," was the impersonator's response.

"But what I want to know will save Amy and Rory…"

"And what's that?"

"Why me?"

"Easy," hissed the shape shifter.

"Explain!" demanded the Doctor.

"Interference."

"Pardon?"

The Doctor didn't understand.

"The time lines converge on you."

"No, no, they converged on Darren, hence why he dressed like me. It was him, and nothing to do with me."

"Always the innocent, Doctor. Always pointing the finger, and never taking the blame."

The Doctor stood quivering in his boots. Then suddenly, he twisted around, and slammed down hard on a switch in which set the TARDIS is motion.

"Hang on!" he yelled. His double clung to the rails of his ship, while the Doctor revelled in the mood of his time and space contraption.

"Where are we headed?"

The creature demanded an answer.

"Imagine a broken record, smashed to pieces, _little pieces. _The pieces can be pieced back together, like a jigsaw puzzle, but cannot be restored to what once was the norm. I've set the coordinates to a point in time I messed around with, the last mistake I made. The error you've come to put right."

* * *

><p>To be continued...<p> 


	5. Chapter 4: End to time

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 4: End to time

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p><em>The TARDIS stopped. The rotor refused to budge. The Doctor cranked down the scanner's shutter. The picture was of open space, with few white dots for stars and balls of yellows and reds in the far distance being planets beyond the space like horizon.<em>

"Where are we?" asked the creature.

"Oh a long way away from Earth, your home world…"

"Where exactly?"

"The coordinates were Gallifrey's, not that you'd know of Gallifrey, my home world…" retorted the Doctor.

"Stop it!" shouted the shape shifter.

"What?"

"I know who you are, where you're from, as who I am would suggest I share what you possess."

"And that is?"

"Knowledge."

"And Gallifrey's home to you is it?" the Doctor retaliated.

"No, it's not, and it neither is to you. This is the mistake, and you became a part of what was, and what Gallifrey has become in your absence."

"I know," said the Doctor, his bottom lip trembling. "You see, I can't go back, I can't seize the moment, 'that' special moment in the time lines. Gallifrey is now time - locked."

"And why your friends are in danger still," the creature informed him.

"Why?"

"Because time and space are in ruins. The time lines are fractured…"

"And it's my fault?"

The Doctor was almost begging for an answer.

"Gallifrey is at the heart of the galaxy, of all civilisations, and when it fell, it gave way to a new order, who observe and interfere."

"Yes, the Daleks," said the Doctor, "but…"

"No, Doctor, you again, are the main protagonist. In leaving home, you destroyed what was, and interfering across planets and galaxies, you have upset the space time continuum!"

Rory stood upright, stretching, his back aching. Amy stood beside him. She comforted him. Arms around him, she hugged him.

"Oh…" said Rory, trailing off into his lover's arms.

"Yeah," said Amy. "Sorry."

"What for?" asked Rory, eyes wide open as Amy spoke.

"Our lives have gotten out of hand, haven't they? It is my fault," she explained.

"Well, duh…" chuckled Rory. "We've a daughter in River Song, who was once Mel, our friend, our school friend!" he exclaimed.

"Tell me about it," said Amy, as Rory in turn comforted her.

Then suddenly, the pair heard the wheezing, groaning noise of the TARDIS materialising, until the two appeared aboard the Doctor's time vessel.

"Doctor?" yelled Amy, rushing up to the console top find him. Two of him.

"Sorry," he said. "There was never any doubt I'd come back for you, and Rory too, eh?" he shouted, greeting Rory from behind the console.

"Who's your friend?" asked Rory.

"He's me, or so he says he is, but actually, he's a crazy time, shape, space alien who changes his form to fit the life of those he's ordered to eliminate…"

"He's going to kill you?" shrieked Amy.

"No, that was the plan, but we… I made a mistake, which I've promised to put right. He's me, yes, but we're going to prove to the organisation he works for what's done is done and time cannot be reversed."

"Who does he work for?" asked Rory.

"The new order," replied the Doctor. "Now, hush all of you, while I reprogram the coordinates for some interesting flight!"

"What?" screeched Amy, as the TARDIS sprung into action.

"We're going into meltdown, think of it that way," screamed the Doctor, rushing from angle to control. "We're going to crash the party, break the boundaries, bypass time and space to show one representative of the new order why we can't go back, and change the time lines!"

As the TARDIS journeyed through the space-time vortex, and rushed out through one nebula into another, the blue box suddenly came to a halt, when ahead of her, appeared a trillion space shuttles, attacking a planet far below.

"Welcome," announced the Doctor, - "…to what I can only refer to as a conflict still unfolding, still changing to this day, never mind having ended so long ago. This is one of many time wars, possibly the biggest, seeing as who's fighting."

"Who is fighting?" asked Amy.

In stunned silence, the Doctor shook his head. Instead, he pointed towards the scanner, and Amy activated but few levers to reveal who was fighting.

Amy recognised the two leading parties, in the Daleks and the Time Lords.

* * *

><p>To be continued…<p> 


	6. Chapter 5: Doomed

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 5: Doomed

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>"Daleks? Those things in the under hedge? Sink plungers? Pepper pots?"<p>

"Yeah," said the Doctor. "And they're ruthless!"

Amy switched the monitor off.

"What do we do now?" she asked, in desperation, their being at the very centre of catastrophe and destruction.

"We prove time cannot be changed. Now, turn to me, all of you," said the Doctor, to his friends and the alien onboard. "What do you see?" he asked them.

"You're almost transparent," said Rory, reaching out to him, but his hand passed through him.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "We're as good as dead. We don't exist in this time zone, because we exist only in the future, and because this time zone is time locked. We've crossed a boundary."

"But time must be reversed," demanded the creature, the shape shifter.

"It can't," said the Doctor, when suddenly, beyond the interior of the console room, the TARDIS was stumbled upon by a Dalek.

"Report!"

Alerting its attack force, the Dalek informed them of its find.

"I have located the TARDIS belonging to the enemy of the Daleks, the oncoming storm, the Doctor."

The Doctor turned back to the monitor, switching it back on, and his eyes , almost coming loose in their sockets, he turned back to his guest, the shape shifter.

"You see!" he exclaimed, their time vessel having attracted some attention. "But…" he paused, observing the Dalek. "Something wrong," he continued.

"What's wrong, Doctor?" asked Rory.

"I said we shouldn't exist in this time zone. I'm a ghost, almost, so why has the TARDIS been located?"

"I don't understand," said the shape shifter.

"Oh you will!" retorted the Doctor. "We shouldn't exist here, full stop. But somehow, we do. The TARDIS has been recognised, and the Dalek is keen to have me eliminated, me entirely, because I fought for Gallifrey, I fought against the Daleks."

"Alone?" asked Amy.

_"No, no,_ there was Absalom Daak, and Glitz, an old friend, and…" he paused, again, as something came to mind. He had in him to say the names of his two present companions, Amy and Rory, but how? "Something's tampered with the time lock!"

"How?" asked the shape shifter.

"I know how," said the Doctor. "Gallifrey returned, as did Rassilon and the Time Lords. But the time wars had interfered with their codes and beliefs, their belief in good will. Dalek Caan, he… well, he went back into the war and saved the Daleks from destruction, saving Davros.

"Doctor… we must leave here!" Amy told him.

"I know that," he said, adjusting the controls, - "But there's something else. If the time lock is down, then the Daleks can wreak havoc on the time lines themselves, and what's more is were caught, and there's no escape!"

"I understand that our situation is not good," said the shape shifter. "I will reason with the Daleks."

"That's fine," replied the Doctor. "But I warn you, never mind our predicament, that the Daleks cannot be reasoned with, and so if you're hell bent on doing so, to meet with the demands of those you serve, then that's completely up to you. But…" and the Doctor met the gaze of Darren once more, through his eyes, the eyes that hadn't changed to fit his own. "We all have a choice."

Suddenly, the TARDIS settled, and on the monitor, came into focus the Emperor of the Daleks. Across a walkway, there on a high platform lingered the most powerful Dalek in existence. Flanked by numerous Daleks hovering at its side, and guards on the ground protecting him from the likes of the Doctor and his companions.

"DOCTOR?" he bellowed. "Leave your TARDIS, and meet the victors of the Time War."

The Doctor turned to his two good friends, and smiled. In a whisper, he told his friends not to worry. All was going to be quite alright. That he was going to find out all he needed to know, then take some serious action against his captors. Amy had warned him to be careful, while Rory had offered some much needed support.

"Prepare to be exterminated, Doctor!"

The voice of the Dalek Emperor echoed through the interior of the TARDIS.

"Today's the day I die!" announced the Doctor. "It's been nice knowing you, Amy, Rory…" and he winked, before he tugged on the handles of the blue doors.

"You can't die!" shouted Amy, being tugged forward by Rory towards the doors. "Not here, you can't, you…"

Rory silenced her.

The pair stared on at the Doctor, while he made contact with the Dalek Emperor.

* * *

><p>To be continued…<p> 


	7. Chapter 6: By process of elimination

Doctor Who: Homecomings

_Featuring the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the hit BBC Television Series._

Chapter 6: By process of elimination

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>The Doctor stepped out from beyond the blue hue of the exterior of the blue box. His hands, while pressed together ahead of him, rubbed causing friction and a slight burn, something of a nervous twitch. He was trembling. But he remained confident. After all, he had a plan.<p>

"Come on then!" he yelled, staring up at the Dalek Emperor, some way ahead of him, but left looming, towering over head, and flanked by Daleks.

**"WHAT?"** bellowed the mighty Dalek.

"How'd you find us? We don't exist in this time zone, so be so good as to explain just how you found us?"

The Dalek's eye stalk lowered as it observed the Doctor first, and then his two bumbling companions.

"You are as real as I, Doctor, for we, the Daleks, conquer and destroy… and to happen upon a TARDIS belonging to the _oncoming storm_ is a victory in itself!"

The Doctor ignored the Dalek, turning to Amy and Rory as they shut the doors to the TARDIS.

"Good of you to pop by," he whispered to them. "Now, I have a plan," he said, while cut short as the Dalek Emperor interrupted.

"Doctor…" the Emperor barked.

"What do you want?" retorted the Doctor, turning on his heel.

But the Emperor was not addressing the Doctor, at least not _'the' _Doctor, but _'a'_ Doctor.

The shape shifter had finally joined them, and drawn attention to himself immediately.

"Quick!" snapped the Doctor, hurrying his companions back into the blue box, and he in turn rushing about the console to dematerialise.

The shape shifter was lost for words, turning to find the blue box leaving, when also faced with dozens of Daleks.

The Dalek Emperor observed that of the Doctor he was left with. He carried off the Doctor's traits, his weird personality, while aboard the TARDIS; the Doctor was dying, becoming distant. And to add to the Doctor facing imminent extermination, he was gaining looks, quirks and more from the dying Doctor.

"Doctor, what's happening?" heaved Amy, while helping Rory to carry the Time Lord from the TARDIS to a zero room he was giving them directions to.

"My plan's worked, but ditching him wasn't enough. He's me, everything I am and ever will be, let alone who I once was, and who I became. Unless…"

"Unless what?" urged Rory, struggling to lower him while having located the zero room, but to find nothing there.

**"EXTERMINATE!"** ordered the Emperor, as those ranked beneath him fired on the Doctor. A beam struck the Doctor enveloping him a white puff of smoke. And in the TARDIS, the Doctor found himself dropping to the bare nothingness of the zero room. Rory's arms were killing him.

"Ouch!" complained the Doctor, finding Amy nearby to help him up onto his feet.

"Thanks for that," he said, while hugging Amy, with Rory's permission of course.

"What of our passenger?" asked Rory.

"He was hell bent on reason and identity. The Daleks reason with no one, and as for the identity of a Time Lord, well…"

"The Doctor lies, eh?" Amy cut in.

"Quite, well, shape shifters feed off those identity's they're supposedly on track of to… well, put right, while really, deep down, they feed from them, steal them for their own purposes. They're just as bad as the Daleks, and so, really, while not changing what once was a then paradox, him becoming me and all, we've not damaged what is and always will be history, something not to be messed with… ever!"


End file.
